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Hamiota hoping to win Kraft Tour vote

By: James Shewaga

Saturday, Jul. 14, 2012 at 9:47 AM | Comments: 0

The town of Hamiota is hoping all of Westman logs on to help them win $25,000 on Tuesday in TSN’s Kraft Celebration Tour.

Hamiota — population 868 — will go head-to-head with Manitou — population 808 — in a 24-hour online voting blitz in an effort to win $25,000 to help build a new playground in the Westman community.

"We’re really excited," said Hamiota School principal Jon Zilkey, who heads the town’s bid. "We’ve got (computers) set up at the school and we’re hoping to get people from the community and surrounding communities to come there and set up both of the computer labs and get people going ... We just need people to vote."

Hamiota, a town with a great sports tradition and history located about an hour’s drive northwest of Brandon, is one of 20 finalists from across the country, including Manitou, located an hour and 45 minutes southeast of the Wheat City.

They will battle for one of 10 awards of $25,000 for sports and recreation projects, with each of the 10 winning communities also hosting a SportsCentre broadcast in August featuring Darren Dutchyshen and Kate Beirness.

If successful, Hamiota will put the money towards a planned $100,000 playground project to replace a 22-year-old structure that is outdated and in need of constant repair.

"This would be a quarter of it right there if we got the $25,000, so it would be great," Zilkey said.

It all comes down to 24 hours of online voting, starting Tuesday at 11 a.m., and running through to Wednesday at 11 a.m. Zilkey is hoping supporters from Brandon and all of Westman pitch in to help out Hamiota’s cause by voting.

"I looked at some of the other provinces that have (voted) already and in B.C. they needed 170,000 votes to win," Zilkey said. "We only have 800 people in Hamiota, so we’re going to need some help if we are going to get to that number. But you can vote repetitively all the time, so it’s going to be almost a question of computer stamina ...

"We’ve got some students that have talked about staying up all night and we are going to keep the school open all night, so we are going to try to go the full 24 hours. We’ve got shifts scheduled, but I think we also have some diehards who are going to try to go as long as they can go ... We just need people to vote, that’s the big thing."

To vote, log onto: www.KraftCelebrationTour.ca starting Tuesday at 11 a.m.

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